Jun 21, 2012

Inspired by a very popular Mexican street food called elote, a typical street food of grilled corn, smothered with mayonnaise and topped with shredded cojita cheese and chili powder. It's simply addicting and combines the flavor sensations of sweet, spicy, sour and savory. Here in New York, you can find vendors in Hispanic neighborhoods on busy street corners grilling corn and serving this special treat.

There's a heat wave in New York this week, so I skipped the grill and cooked the sweet corn on the stove just a few minutes. I added some fresh scallion and cilantro for color and flavor and loved this as a side dish.

Cotija cheese is a firm, dry Mexican cheese similar to a feta, which could be used in it's place if you can't find it near you.

Side note: Don't you love my turquoise table? It's actually not a table, this was a board made just for me from my crafty friend Tricia over at Crafty Moods. If you have a blog and want to learn how to make these beautiful boards, visit her site and she walks you through it step by step!

ooooh! I love this! It's "the corn-man" in a bowl! I'm moving from a highly Latino area with a corn-man to an area that I don't think would take kindly to him. :( I was thinking of how much I would miss him, but now I feel like I won't have to! My husband will love this. Thanks for the recipe!

And now, I know I'm one of those people who isn't actually reviewing the recipe... Sorry all. I will, I promise!

Hey, great minds...I just made this too, and on the stove-top! Your photos are great! I love the "table" and aqua is my favorite color. I was talking to a crafty friend of mine to make one for me. :) I do like your recipes!

Of the three grocery stores I frequent, they all randomly carry the Cotija cheese- it's a total crap shoot whether they will have it or not. Whole Foods usually does though, and Ricotta Salata is a very good substitute as well as the feta. It's a little drier than feta. I am obsessed with this type of corn and will definitely be trying this healthy version.

Hi! Do you have a substitute for the cheese, as I know I probably won't be able to find the Cotija. I LOOOVE Feta cheese but can't have it right now because I am pregnant, (know I need to avoid mould-ripened soft cheeses) any suggestions on a different type of cheese?

My regular Kroger grocery store ALWAYS has Cotija, and we use it instead of feta. It is milder and saltier in flavor and WE LOVE IT!! I wouldn't skip it unless you have to! If you have an aisle with Mexican food and it has a cooler in the aisle, check for Cotija there.

OH MY GOODNESS! We just moved to Dallas from North Carolina and have fallen in love/obsession with elote!!! But it's not figure-friendly. I am SO excited you posted this recipe. So excited, in fact, that I just called my husband at work and told him about it. THANK YOU!

I saw the heading, and yelled "ELOTE"! My dh thought I was losing my mind. Lol. This is one of my faves. Love the healthier version, I only have my family's traditional recipe. Yay! Can't wait to make it.

In Chicago (at least on the south side) they use grated parmesan cheese, I think it tastes wonderful. So, if you have trouble finding cotija and need a substitute, grated parmesan has similar calories/fat.

This is great! I've grown up being able to buy from the vendors, but it was always a problem of having to explain, no I don't actually want the mayo on the corn, just everything else, and this takes care of that problem. I made this without mayo or yogurt and it was delicious!

My daughter-in-law is Mexican so I can't wait to make this for her. I know she will be so surprised. If you don't want to grill the corn or heat up your kitchen you can put the cleaned ears of corn in a gallon-sized zippered plastic bag and microwave for 6 minutes. Perfect corn everytime and so much tastier than boiled corn.

Even easier is put the whole ear of corn in the microwave without shucking it for 4 minutes. Cut off the bottom of the corn making sure to get all of the base and flip over and the corn will just fall out. No silks or anything.

This mexican dish is call ESQUITES, when we boil the elote (corn) we add epazote leafs and salt. To serve you put the corn grains with the hot broth, mayo, chili, cheese and lemon juice. So delicious!!!!

What would go great with this would be some skinny chicken flautas. They are a welcome change to tiresome fajitas and tacos, and delicate flavors of peppers really set them apart. I've see some baked and healthy versions of greasy morsels of awesome, but they lack flavor and end up being chicken tacos rolled in tortilla chips by the time the oven dries them out. Just throwing it out there as a new recipe for you to makeover, Im sure they'd be a hit!

I just made a Skinnytaste dinner! This salad was so easy to make and delicious. It will definitely remain part of my regular rotation. The rest of the menu:Pollo Sabroso (breasts and drumsticks)Arroz CongriBaked tostones

This was fantastic! I'd never heard of this dish before, but you've never steered me wrong before, so I had to give it a try. So glad I did; this will have to become a weekly side dish this summer :) Just hit my goal weight (35 pounds lost altogether), and your website has been a huge process of that---thank you, Gina!

Just finished eating this! It was delicious!!!! Definitely going to make this often. I'm thinking it would even make it in the winter with frozen corn. The husband loved it. Thanks for another fabulous recipe!!!!!

Gina-thank you for this AMAZING recipe! I made it for dinner tonight and the only changes I made were subbing light queso blanco (even less calories and still tastes really good) for the cojita and also added adobo and a little black pepper..it was amazing!! Had it with spicy baked and breaded chicken thighs and a big green salad with your yummy creamy cilantro & tomatillo dressing. It was all healthy and soooooo good! Can't wait to have the leftovers tomorrow! =)

I made this last weekend for a family BBQ and it was a HUGE hit. There were 7 adults and I did 7 ears of corn... we had leftovers! When this is a side dish, I would reco 1/2 - 2/3 cup per person. I made it in the morning, put it in the fridge, took it out an hour before we ate and ate it room temp for dinner. (I did add a little extra lime and used less mayo)

One tip... if you do have the time, grilling the corn adds some great additional flavor!

I just made this for a picnic, and of course had to sample...YUMMY!!! I couldn't find the cotija cheese, so I used feta instead. Absolutely delicious! I can't wait to hear the reactions at the picnic tomorrow!

I made this as a side dish today, and everyone raved about it. I'm so glad I doubled the recipe! I had never used cotija cheese before, and found it to be delicious. This recipe is definitely a keeper! Thank you Gina!

I made this tonight and it was delicious!! I used frozen corn (sweet white & yellow), omitted the cilantro (I'm not a fan), doubled up on the chili powder and added some cayenne (I was craving something with heat), substituted crumbled fat-free feta for the cotija, and used the juice of an entire lime. Will definitely make this again!

We first tried this dish at a restaurant in Sedona called Elote and fell in love with it. I made it last week with your recipe and it was nirvana. Picked up more fresh corn last night to make it again. I think we'll be having this often this summer. Pinned it, so I can find it easily. Thanks so much!

Made this for dinner tonight, to go with your Pollo Sabroso and Cilantro Lime Rice. I absolutely loved this corn salad. Hubby wasn't as big a fan, but that's ok. Corn isn't his favorite veggie anyway. The recipe is easy enough to scale down just for me, so that's what I'll do. :)

This recipe is just amazing, even my kids/ Toddlers love it. I am obliged to make it for the hubby, It is fun making , eating and digesting. Thanks for sharing, i have made it three times so far. a lil more lime is great. Great for a potluck idea. Thanks a bunch, LOVE LOVE this site.

Just made this tonight. I used crumbled feta instead of the other cheese. You did not put a warning on it though that I would eat the WHOLE THING! Hahah. It was awesome. I just ate it straight out of the mixing bowl, which was probably a part of my problem.Thanks for sharing!

I have made this over and over again for my family and the quadrupled batch that I made for a Boy Scout potluck disappeared within 25 minutes!

One time I didn't have corn on hand but I had some summer squash, zucchini and patty pan so I cut them up into little corn sized bites, cooked them in a nonstick pan with a little olive oil and did the rest of the recipe as listed and it turned out to be also very yummy!

Help! I made this tonight, followed the recipe word for word and it came out really gritty, not creamy like it looks in the picture. Any thoughts on what I did wrong? It has a nice flavor, but the texture is kind of gross.